In response to the national effort to develop, improve, and deliver clinical and translational science, the leadership of Emory University challenged both faculty and the administration to transform clinical and translational research within the University and its numerous components and affiliates. With ongoing collaborations in heath-care, education, and interdisciplinary research, Emory also chose to engage two of its close academic partners in metropolitan Atlanta - Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech) to form the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Atlanta-CTSI). This strategic multi-institutional alliance offered compelling and unique advantages. Emory is one of the nation's leading healthcare and academic research institutions, ranking 19th nationally in NIH funded research;GA Tech is a national leader in biomedical engineering and the application of innovative systems engineering to health care solutions;and MSM is a historically black medical school recognized as a national leader in expanding the ethnic diversity of biomedical research, dedicated to community engagement in efforts to eliminate health disparities and serving as a pipeline for training minority investigators. The established partnerships and diverse faculty enable the Atlanta-CTSI to combine strong clinical, translational, training and basic discovery programs at Emory with the health disparities, training and community outreach focus of MSM together with the engineering and bioinformatics achievements of GA Tech. The planning efforts also led to the creation of a new and innovative pediatric clinical and translational research program and a partnership with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, new partnerships with the emerging Georgia biotechnology community and with Kaiser Permanente, and the further development of partnerships with state sponsored agencies (Georgia Research Alliance) and with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Atlanta-CTSI is a model designed to harness the scientific, technological, and clinical advantages of these institutions around the major aims of discovery, training, and community engagement to create a new city wide home for clinical and translational research. Other new programs resulting from the synergistic partnership include an innovative pilot projects program PiCo-TraCS, integrated clinical interactions and biomedical informatics networks (CIN and BIN), creation of a technology "pipeline" and Academy for Translational Methods Development, a bioinformatics Leapfrog initiative, a facilitating Office of Human Studies Research, creative K30/K12 and T32 programs, and an outstanding community engagement program. The institutional support for the Atlanta-CTSI is exceptional. The Atlanta- CTSI utilizes the complementary strengths of Emory, MSM, and GA Tech and other GA institutions to promote the discipline of clinical and translational science and to improve the healthcare of our community.